Cooking: Cranberry Pudding for Christmas

My mother used to make this cranberry pudding every Christmas, well at least since about the time I was in junior high school. We would do a progressive dinner with some close family friends right before Christmas and this was always the dessert my mother chose to serve. Warm out of the oven with a substantial puddle of caramel sauce it is pretty hard to beat! Especially on a frosty night.

My mother devised this recipe, I'm guessing by improvising on another one, and it must have been shared a lot because it showed up in a locally produced cookbook a few years ago. Or perhaps someone else was onto this combination of ingredients. Either way, yum!

I love another reason to buy cranberries this time of year. Sometimes I buy a few extra bags and freeze them to thaw later and make this. It works!

Here's the how-to:

CRANBERRY PUDDING FOR CHRISTMAS

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

29 oz canned pears with juice ("Lite" syrup is fine--or you could also substitute the same amount of applesauce)

3 cups raw cranberries

Preheat your oven to 350-degrees.

Pour the canned pears and juice into your stand mixer and mix to break up any large pieces. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the cranberries, and mix well. Add the cranberries and stir to combine. The batter is pretty runny--a bit more so than cake batter.

Pour the batter into a greased 9"x13" pan. Bake at 350-degrees for 45 minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the caramel sauce. The cake should be browned on the top but still very moist. Serve while hot and top with caramel sauce.

CARAMEL SAUCE

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup evaporated (canned) milk

1/2 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine the first three ingredients and stir constantly over medium heat until thickened. Remove from heat and add vanilla.

I could eat this sauce with nothing else but a spoon!